The unlikely patient and the most likely patient: a personal reflection on 2 patients and the lessons learned regarding physician communication in the field of palliative medicine.

Palliative care is somewhat of a new field in medicine. A field which requires within it an intricate understanding of disease and its prognostic indicators. A field which considers the patient as a whole with the goal of patient-directed care. And a field which necessitates as much medicine as it does art. However, Palliative Care is often consulted by intensivists and primary teams during the last moments of life. And although we can be helpful during this time, we can be of more assistance when incorporated earlier by providing not only end-of-life care, but enhanced pain and symptomatic management, elucidating goals of care, as well as affording patients and their families with emotional, spiritual, and psychosocial support. Our expertise can be useful in all patients, not just the dying.